Origins of the Trio
by EizenKatze
Summary: How Keith Ellis and Dave met. How their childhood progressed and why they eventually split apart. And perhaps...how they came back together after an apocalypse? Set pre-game to post game.
1. Chapter 1

Chapter: 1

Pairings: None as of yet.

Summary: How Ellis, Kieth and Dave met each other.

Keith didn't have the best of lives. His mother drank constantly and the slew of boyfriends seemed never ending. The ten year old couldn't comprehend why his mother beat him. Or why as of recent her boyfriends had started joining in on it. A long sigh left the bruised split lips of the red head as he walked along the road towards home. Home was a tiny trailer with a bedroom not much bigger than a glorified closet. Home was a ticking land mine, it wasn't one he was in a hurry to step on. His head lifted as he realized he was walking beside an old fashioned log fence. He looked over and smiled, he liked the way the people on the reservation lived. He was often jealous when he passed by and watched them going about their lives. Families out playing together. Everything just made the child sad. Today however in the fenced off area he spied something that made him stop. A boy..or was it a girl? Around his age whatever gender the long haired native kid was. He turned and put his chin on the top of the fence watching the child leading a young horse around by a lead rope. He decided that it would be ok to call out to them, anything was better than going home.

"Yo! Nice horse, 'e yours?" The little Georgian boy was happy when the other kid approached. The soft voice threw him for a moment but he decided it was another boy he was talking to.

"Yeah but he's too young to ride yet. Poppa gave him to me for my birthday...I see you walk by here a lot.." He seemed a little shy but Keith didn't mind it any, he didn't have a friend in the world because of his mom.

"Shoot I go to school just up the road, yah not in public school?" He tilted his head to one side brown eyes watching black ones.

"The reservation has it's own school, though there aren't many kids my age here." He admitted.

"We'e nearly the same age yah know. Why can' we be friends?" He reached through the fence and took the other boys hand shaking it. "I'm Keith le's be friends kay?"

"A..alright..I'm David.." He answered back looking down at their hands clasped together for a moment.

" Nice tah meet'ah Dave!" His grin was 100 watts of pure intention and it was infectious the young native boy cracking the smallest of smiles.

* * *

He didn't meet the third member of their trio until a full two years later. School was hard when elementary and middle school were in the same building. Little kids were always getting bullied and it took every ounce of the twelve year old red heads will power not to get in a fight. If he stood up for some poor kid he'd be blamed for the fight, and then his mother would hear and all kinds of hell would break loose. So when he heard the pitiful cries for help coming from the school yard he did his best to just keep walking to his favorite area to be alone in. But there was something about the small voice crying being interupted by hitting that snapped something inside him. He whirled around and stalked right up to the boy kicking the 9 year old curled in a little ball on the ground. Grabbing the boys shoulder he whirled him around mid kick and punched him across the face with everything he could muster.

"Ah'll teach'a tah beat up on tha lil' ones yah big prick!" He punched him again and again until the bully ran off crying with a swollen eye and a split lip. He spit at the ground where the bully had been. "Serves yah right."

Turning he knelt down putting his hand on the frightened boys head only to be met by the widest adoring blue eyes he'd ever seen. The little blond headed boy staring at him.

"Tha' was so cool! Yer like superman or summin!" He grinned in a weird lopsided manner at the older boy, then latched onto him with a hug. "Thankya for helpin me he wa' trying to take my lunch, but my momma made my lunch special. Didn' want to give 'im none."

"I'm nothin that special kid, just dun like seein someone get hit by some one older tha' them." He pet the boys hair having never gotten a hug before he just let him stay attached to his shirt. "I'm Keith by the way.."

"Ellis, I'm Ellis. I'mma follow you til the day I die yer so cool I bet you could do all sorts of awesome stuff!" He bounced excitedly and Keith was reminded of a puppy kind of.

* * *

"Didja hear Dave?" Ellis leaned far over the fence watching the cows grazing and then looked at the taller boy. "Keith's inna hospital. We shoul go visit him." the eleven year old's pure blue eyes looked at him with wonder.

"Did you hear that at school? Why woul' he be in the hospital?" Dave frowned in concern. Ellis may have been a little slow but Dave had seen Keith come over with bruises and worse before.

"School nurse sai' he got burn'd up pretty bad on his neck. We shoul' go see him yah?"

The two took their bikes and rode through town to the hospital uncaring of distance. Thankfully the nursing staff seemed elated anyone was there to see the little boy. Leading them into his room. Ellis ran over and started chirping off at the groggy red head while Dave looked around. It didn't look like anyone had been staying with him. Where the hell was Keith's mother through all this? Why wasn't she here with her ailing child? He was shook out of his thoughts by the tired sounding voice from the bed.

"Dave? I asked yah somethin...yah alright?" He sat up more in bed his whole neck from his ears down wraped in gauze. Parts on the sides had slightly wet patches from leaking through.

"Did your ma do tha' Keith?" He asked moving over to the bed. The wince on the boys face told everything and he looked off to the side. "Why didn' you tell the docs? They coul get you away from her."

"No! Ya dun think I didn't think of that? If they take me away then I'll neva see either of you again. I dun want that I'd rather just put up with her." He frowned chewing on his lip. Ellis blinked looking between them.

"Your momma did that? How? She light yah on fire Keith?" He said in a far too loud and worried voice making both boys shush him.

"She was doin laundry...An I was jus' tryin tah ask when dinner was. She got mighty pissed off at me and flung the bleach at me.." He touched his throat. "She tol the docs I was being a fool and tryin to take a ride in the washin machine..They believed it cause ay'm a boy and boys a' stupid." He sighed out some.

"Then..we'll protect you." It was Ellis that piped up not Dave and the middle 'child' of the group looked down at him blinking. "Yer momma gets bad you jus' come over to one of our houses, My momma wouldn't turn yah away and I dun think Dave's would neither. We don't wanna lose you neither Keith, so we'll protect yah." He grinned in that lopsided fashion he'd taken to. And the red head couldn't help but grin back at him. Dave just nodded at the strangely sound logic from the more hyperactive child.

"He's right, we'll protect yah Keith." He echoed the sentiment.

"Mah heroes." Keith laughed and ruffled Ellis's hair a bit looking at Dave. "Knight's in shinin armor an all tha' shit."

"You said shit!" Ellis said wide eyed and the other two just laughed at him.


	2. Chapter 2

Chapter 2

Summary: Ellis is some kind of Genius (some kind) and Keith is unlucky in love.

* * *

"What's that?" The brunette chirped and Dave sighed for the hundredth time that day bent over a car he was attempting to learn on.

"That's a fan Ellis, I'm tryin to learn this for class. Can' you go bug Keith? Or do I gotta ban you from tryin to help me too?"

"Tha' aint fair tah begin with Dave!" Keith called out from a couch set very far away from the car. His hands still bandaged from the burns he got the day before when he was allowed to try and help.

"No yer bad luck and an engine is disaster waitin. You gotta find another elective." The native quipped back clamly. "Yer 16 Keith figure out what the fuck yah wanna do with your life yah?" He sighed at what he was working on. "I give up, I've checked everything.."

"What about..." Ellis leaned over and grabbed one of the tools from him and before the Cherokee could stop him was doing something with the engine. "Ok.. try it?"

In disbelief he tried turning over the engine wowed when it started on the first try and he just leaned back out looking at Ellis who had the largest grin on his face.

"The hell...? How did you..? Who taught you how to do that?" Dave asked quite a bit surprised a 13 year old just did that and he had no idea what he'd done.

"Well shit I been watchin you for like three days working on it, an I been looking at your books. It's all really easy Dave.." He shrugged a bit though the satisfied grin was still on his face.

"Well a' least onna us knows what their doin with their lives." Keith called out amused by the dumbfounded look on his friends face. "I got it! We in a garage right? We shoul make one of em garage bands. Lotsa women love bands man."

"Hmmmn well Mom has been botherin me to learn some kinda instrument." Dave conceded to the notion some. "What are you going to do then? And what about Ellis? A three man band aint much of a band Keith. We don't know anyone else."

"Well shit we'll figure that out as we go right? I kin play drums I been fiddlin with the ones at the music store. An I kin sing too." He frowned at the large snort that produced from the taller man. "What I can too!" He would have hit him if his hands weren't still burned.

"Sure you can spitfire. I guess we give it a try, but what the hell do we do with...Ellis what th' hell are you doin?"

"Fixin the car more...I wasn' listening what are you two goin on about?" He blinked leaning up his hands and face covered in black grease smudges.

"We're talking about making a band..yah in?" Keith almost couldn't talk because he felt like laughing at that face.

"Shit yah! I gotta bass thingy for Christmas, ma said I shoul' learn somethin early...or something like tha'"

"You gotta bass and never told us?" Dave asked incredulously.

"I though' you guys would laugh, I didn' know it was cool or nothing." Now the two of them did laugh, Ellis had no idea why they were laughing but he just grinned sheepishly.

* * *

"So she dumped you, wha' happened this time?" Dave asked the somber red head drinking a beer across from him. A sigh leaving his lips at the meloncholly attitude.

" 'member that time we was tryin to make fire works an my shirt caught on fire? An I got those weird splotchy burns on my body? Scarred up all neat lookin?"

"She dumped you because of your scars?" He hadn't expected that.

"Naw just that man she let me sleep wit her. Said it was prolly the only lay I'd ever get so I might as well get it from a pretty girl." He put his head on the table miserably.

"What a fucking bitch." Dave said with a raised tone of anger in his voice. "You don't listen to a word she says Keith. Some girl out there will just love those scars alright?"

"Yah I guess so." He sighed out looking up at him. "Least I got you and Elle right? Don't need no bossy woman deligatin my time." He smiled a little more trying to cheer himself up. He smiled more when a hand ruffled at his hair and he soaked up the attention.

"That's the right attitude to have." Dave was highly distracted though by petting his friends hair.

Why was that so nice feeling? He dropped his hand after a moment trying to chew it over in his head for a while. Keith wasn't doing any better on the confusion side. The affection had his face going a bit slack.

"Any way we shoul' get outta here and go find Elle so we kin practice, he at the garage you think?" He pushed up and grabbed his coat.

"Is he usually anywhere else these days? E'er since he started taking auto he's been in the shop every night."

The shop was a small auto garage that Dave's parents had helped him rent. He paid for the rent on his own with Ellis's help. They really were a good team. So long as Keith stayed on perma ban when it came to touching the cars. Keith settled for cleaning up and surprisingly balancing the cash. He turned out to be fairly good at numbers. Which considering how he talked surprised quite a few people. He did odd jobs on the side too to make up for the expenses of their music equipments upkeep. Dave gave a small wave of hello as he came in.

"How's the Thompsons van comin? I told em you'd probably have it done in a few days." He looked over their work sheet.

"Hell that thin'? All done, had em come get it an hour ago. Payments in tha office Keith. As well as the truck for ol' man Jenkins." He said wiping his hands off on a rag. "How's it commin finding us a gig? We been ready for months."

"Slow as fuck, jes no opportunities for us here in Savanah. I think we may wanna try Atlanta." Keith said as he stepped into the office looking over the payments and putting them in the pouch for taking to the bank before the end of the day. "Imma try to find some kind of recording company that might listen to us, we get their attention we get more gigs an eventually rock stars." He grinned widely as he returned. Ellis had a grin as well.

"Hell yah we're gonna play all the big places!" He gave a little pump of his fist in the air of encouragement.

"We'll set tha sky on fire sunshine." Keith chuckled out and grinned at Dave winking. The cherokee raised one brow but couldn't help the smile forming on his face. Of course it faded two seconds later.

"Yah think you could? Set the sky on fire?" Ellis blinked looking at him.

"...Hell I bet ya I could..enough gunpowder and gasoline. Just need some kina catapult and a delayed fuse.."

A day later they were standing out in a field. Ellis and Keith putting the final touches on their catapult of doom filled with all kinds of flammable substances. Dave watched with furrowed brows. Fire and Keith usually equalled hospital.

"I really don't think this is a good idea, usually I'd let you two have at with the dumb ideas but spitfire this could actually light you on fire and I don't want to see you get hurt more.."

"Aww c'mon Dave, Keith is like invincible." Ellis looked at him like he was crazy to think other wise.

"No, no he aint Ellis he's just a guy like us. Yah keep encouraging him like this and one day we won't have no Keith anymore." He frowned chiding the boy in a fatherly manner.

"Pfff no confidence in me at all." Keith said as he stood up and suddenly lit the fuse and waits til it was just right and pulled the handle.

Ellis and Dave had to scramble away to get to safety. Keith just stared up as the thrown up liquid and powders exploded into light and fire. He was so entranced by it he didn't see it falling towards him until it caught him square in the backside. He fell forward but the fire kept falling and it burned right through his tshirt in an instant. If they hadn't brought their beer cooler per usual he would have just kept burning. But Dave was quick in action and snagged it up dumping the ice and water out over him dousing the flames. Then he scooped the red head into his arms.

"We're taking him to the hospital." He said sternly Ellis didn't complain at all.

It was kind of a usual trip for them after an outing. The nurses at the hospital had a special room that was always prepped for the boys arrival. They even went so far as to say 'welcome home' whenever Keith arrived in whatever state was that weeks mess. And this weeks mess was second degree burns on his back. He had to lay on his front side in bed, high as a kite on morphine while he was down. Ellis had went home some hours ago with his mother. Who had in her loving graces left both the remaining young men a good home cooked meal wrapped on the side table. Dave shook his head looking at him.

"You gotta stop these fool ideas of yours Keith, someday I'm gonna lose you.." He said his hand petting the older boys hair soothingly.

"Ya have it real soft for me don'tcha..But I like it that way. Only person in the world that makes shit right yah know? Ma won't come, she never has. But yer always right there..." He was so out of it, he wasn't likely to remember the conversation. Dave knew that all too well from previous ones.

"It won't ever change either, don't worry yourself none. I'm not like your Mom, I'm with you for the long haul spitfire." He let a long breath out. There was that feeling again that he couldn't put his finger on. "Just rest, I'll be here when ya wake up." He watched the red head doze off slowly and soon enough he was sleeping in his chair as well.


End file.
